CARSON, Calif. – Last weekend's lopsided loss at Orlando City was the low point for the LA Galaxy this season and among the lowest since Bruce Arena took charge back in August 2008, but he has little interest in discussing what ails his team.
The LA head coach knows the Galaxy have played poorly during the first two and a half months of the season, with the primary reason being an injury crisis that has forced 13 players – most of them substantial contributors – to miss matches.
While there's a fair amount of work required to get them moving in the right direction, Arena says he's not at all concerned.
“Listen,” Arena said ahead of Friday night's game at StubHub Center against the Houston Dynamo (10:30 pm ET, UDN, UnivisionDeportes.com). “Come talk to me later in the year.”
The Galaxy (3-4-5) are winless in their last five and have dropped two regular-season games in a row for the first time in nearly two years. They've been in poor form all year, playing well in perhaps only two matches, at D.C. United and FC Dallas, and lost both on late goals.
But last week's loss, forward Alan Gordon said, left the Galaxy “a little bit embarrassed.”
The latest in a series of makeshift lineups had two inexperienced youngsters – rookie Ignacio Maganto and teenager Bradford Jamieson – up front and a backline missing Omar Gonzalez and with Baggio Husidic seeing his first game, ever, at left back.
“I would say with the team we put on the field, we had to play well to get a result,” Arena said. “And we didn't play well. So we certainly didn't get a result [nor] give ourselves a chance.”
On the plus side, the Galaxy are starting to get healthy. Captain Robbie Keane could see his first action since April 4 on Friday, Jose Villarreal is back, and several others are making quick progress in their bids to return to the field, which would enable LA to start working in earnest on building a coherent attack.
“That'll help,” Arena said. “It doesn't solve [all the problems], but that will help, for sure.”
Gordon said the returns will not work like “some magic.”
“Just getting some healthy bodies back, it doesn't mean that it's all going to work out,” he said. “We've got to work hard, we've got to continue to work on our shape and our form, and, moving forward, the healthy bodies will help. I know that for a fact. But it doesn't mean that it's not going to be tough.”
Husidic, who normally plays in central midfield or on the left flank, said he thought the problems were about “more than” missing persons.
“I think the mindset has to change a little bit,” he said. “I think we've got to get sharper. Of course, missing Keano, missing Jose is a big part, but it's rare that a team plays with their full squad every single game, so we've got to adapt and pick it up a bit.”
Associate head coach Dave Sarachan says the Galaxy know they’ve struggled, and are being “honest with ourselves.”
“We have a group that looks itself in the mirror, we have coaches that look themselves in the mirror, and we're not hiding behind any facade that things are good but we've been unlucky,” he said. “We're honest with each other. There's still belief that when we are healthy and we have our first-line guys, we're still as good as any team in the league, and we know that that will eventually play out.”
The struggles were discussed in a team meeting on Wednesday, and Arena has been happy with how the group has responded to the Orlando City debacle this week in training.
“They have good focus. They're working hard. Quality's a little better,” he said. “We'll see. There's nothing to talk about. The only thing is to see how they play. That's the test.
“They're going to be all right. I think when July comes around, we're going to have a pretty good team.”
